Presidents of the United States - POTUS
A reference resource for basic information about the U.S. Presidents. Each president’s page includes election results, cabinet members, a list of notable events during term of office, and historical documents, such as inauguration speeches, proclamations, and significant public addresses. The site provides links to sites about important events and biographies of family and cabinet members. Audio files are available for presidents from Grover Cleveland to George W. Bush. Links to two to ten Internet biographies and one to 13 related sites are provided.
Resources Available: TEXT, IMAGES, AUDIO.
Website last visited on 2008-10-08.

The American Presidency Project
Gerhard Peters, John T. Woolley, and the University of California, Santa Barbara.
This archive, devoted to documenting American presidents from George Washington through Barack Obama, currently contains 85,741 documents, and is still growing. Documents include public papers, State of the Union messages, inaugural addresses, radio addresses, executive orders, proclamations, signing statements, press conferences, press briefings, statements of administrative policy, debates, convention speeches, party platforms, and documents on the Presidential transitions in 2001 and 2009. In addition, a media archive includes audio recordings and videos of presidential speeches and addresses from Herbert Hoover through George H.W. Bush. Visitors can listen, for example, to Richard Nixon’s farewell remarks from the White House in August 1974. An extensive compilation of data complements these materials, including the number of major speeches, news conferences, and political appearances each President made, as well as data on job approval ratings, endorsements by major newspapers, vetoes, seats gained or lost in mid-term elections, and a graph comparing the length, in words, of all Presidential inaugural addresses. Election maps from 1789 to the present, as well as a special section on the election dispute in 2000, are also included.
Resources Available: TEXT, IMAGES, AUDIO, VIDEO.
Website last visited on 2009-02-15.

By Popular Demand: Portraits of the Presidents and First Ladies, 1789-Present
American Memory, Library of Congress.
The Library of Congress’s Prints and Photographs Division selected this set of 156 portraits of presidents and first ladies from those items in the division’s file of popular demand images for which no copyright restrictions are known. Popular subjects, such as images of inaugurations and the White House, are included, as are such perennial favorites as Abraham Lincoln with Sojourner Truth, Calvin Coolidge at a baseball game, Warren G. Harding with his lively dog Laddie, and Dwight D. Eisenhower with American paratroopers in England. The first ladies’ portraits depict thirty-six wives of thirty-five presidents. The collection is primarily illustrative.
Resources Available: TEXT, IMAGES.
Website last visited on 0000-00-00.

Public Papers of the Presidency
American Presidency Project, University of California, Santa Barbara.
Bringing together a wide range of material on the public communications of American presidents, as well as election data and statistical information on presidency, this website presents the public messages, statements, speeches, and news conference remarks of presidents from Herbert Hoover to George W. Bush and can be browsed or searched by month and year. Visitors can also view transcripts of all inaugural addresses and State of the Union messages, convention speeches of presidential candidates from 1960 to 2004, and all the presidential debates. The site offers major party platforms from 1840 to 2004 and transcripts of various events from the 2001 presidential transition. The text of Franklin Roosevelt’s fireside chats between March 1933 and June 1944 and the Saturday radio addresses of presidents George W. Bush and William J. Clinton are also available. Transcripts from the “Presidential Candidates Debates” from the 1960 through the 2004 election are present for perusal and analysis. The entire archive of documents can be searched by keyword. Additional features include numerical data on a wide range of topics, from presidential relations with Congress to election statistics. A media archive contains various audio and video clips from the late 19th century to the present, including an audio clip of Benjamin Harrison that may be the first recording of a president. A useful election index provides a map of states won by each candidate in the elections from 1828 to 2004 along with the number of electoral votes and popular vote totals and percentages. Visitors will also find an extensive archive of transcripts from the 2000 election dispute. Links are provided to the presidential libraries and National Archives presidential materials. This website is a valuable resource for those researching 20th-century presidents and useful source for numerical information on the presidency and presidential elections.
Resources Available: TEXT, IMAGES, AUDIO, VIDEO.
Website last visited on 2007-10-30.

American President: An Online Reference Resource
Miller Center of Public Affairs, University of Virginia.
This website features extensive information on all 43 of the nation’s presidencies. Each president is featured individually with an in-depth biographical essay, details about the first lady and members of the cabinet, links to the President’s speeches, and discussions with current scholars. The Presidency as an institution is treated thoroughly in the “President at Work” section, that features a collection of essays on general areas of presidential duty: domestic and economic policy; national security; legislative affairs; administration of the government and White House; and presidential politics. Clicking on “Presidential Oral Histories” or “Presidential Recordings” under the “Academic Programs” tab reveals an additional wealth of information. Recordings are available for Presidents Roosevelt, Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, and Nixon. After tapes were prohibited from the Oval Office following the Watergate scandal, the Miller Center began to conduct oral history projects, producing hours of interviews with Presidents Carter, Reagan, Bush, and Clinton and their staff.
Resources Available: TEXT, AUDIO.
Website last visited on 2007-10-28.

Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States, 1992–2001
National Archives and Records Administration, Office of the Federal Register.
Digitized versions of twenty volumes of Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States, spanning from 1992 to 2004, are presented on this website. Material includes papers and speeches issued by the Office of the Press Secretary during the terms of William J. Clinton (seventeen volumes, 1993–2001), in addition to two volumes pertaining to George H. W. Bush for 1992, and four volumes for George W. Bush (January 20-June 30, 2004). The documents, including addresses, statements, letters, and interviews with the press, are compiled by the Office of the Federal Register and published in chronological order. Also included are appendices with daily schedules and meetings, nominations to the Senate, proclamations, and executive orders, as well as photographic portfolios accompanying each set of papers. Users may access multiple volumes by keyword searches and separate volumes by title of document, type, subject matter, and personal names.
Resources Available: TEXT, IMAGES.
Website last visited on 2007-11-03.

Hypertext on American History from the Colonial Period until Modern Times
Professor George M. Welling, University Groningen (Netherlands), University Bergen (Norway).
This very useful site was created by undergraduate and graduate students at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands. It provides more than 375 documents pertaining to United States history, from the colonial period to the present. The site is divided into four sections. The “Documents” section offers approximately 375 primary works arranged chronologically from the Magna Carta (1215) to Martin Luther King Jr.'s “I Have a Dream” speech (1963). The collection contains important documents like Benjamin Franklin’s Autobiography, excerpts from Adam Smith’s The Wealth of Nations, and many of Abraham Lincoln’s speeches. The collection is strongest from the colonial period to the end of the 19th century. The “Essays” section contains more than 35 essays on various aspects of United States history by University of Groningen students and other scholars. “Biographies” offers more than 200 biographies of historical figures related to American history, about 50 of which are extensive (roughly 2000 words) and the remainder of which are approximately 350 words. The “Presidents” section contains documents pertaining to each of the United States presidents, up to George W. Bush’s 2007 State of the Union address, and it provides links to ten websites dedicated to American presidents. The site is keyword searchable, but some of the text with query results is in Dutch. Though this site provides no contextualization for the featured documents, it is very useful for researching many aspects and periods of United States history, and it is particularly helpful for students researching American presidents.
Resources Available: TEXT.
Website last visited on 2007-11-14.

SIRIS Image Gallery
National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution.
Highlights from the Smithsonian Institution are presented here, with access to a database of close to 140,000 images from Smithsonian archives and museums. The Image Gallery presents a sample of images, browsable by format, such as photographs, slides, drawings, postcards, and stereographs. Images are also organized by repository, including the Freer Gallery, the Archives Center, and the National Anthropological Archive. “Frequently Used Images” provides a link to the most popular images, sorted by month and year. Within the Archives Center, for example, there are four collections with more than 30,000 images, including the Underwood and Underwood Glass Stereograph Collection, 1895–1921 on topics such as actors, African Americans, disasters, ethnic humor, immigration, Indians, labor, presidents, women, and World War I. The Addison N. Scurlock presents more than 2,000 black-and-white images, primarily of Washington, D.C., and from African American life. There are 1,500 advertisements from the Ivory Soap Advertising Collection and close to two hundred postcards. All images may be searched via the Search Images tab.
Resources Available: IMAGES.
Website last visited on 2007-11-10.

Archival Research Catalog (ARC)
National Archives and Records Administration (NARA).
In addition to providing a catalog for researchers who plan to use National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) materials on site, ARC offers approximately 78,000 digital images of governmental textual records, photographs, and maps. Materials date from the Colonial period to the recent past. ARC includes items on presidents, the nation’s wars, slavery, civil rights, and American Indians. Images dating from the 17th and 18th centuries are also digitized and downoladable. The search engine is clearly organized and invites queries on specific historical materials or general themes. To access digitized materials only, check the box marked “Descriptions of Archival Materials linked to digital copies.” The site conitnues to expand, though as it stands, it provides an exceptional amount of government sanctioned material.
Resources Available: TEXT, IMAGES, AUDIO, VIDEO.
Website last visited on 2007-10-23.

The Presidents
Kunhardt Productions and Thirteen/WNET in New York.
See JAH web review by Donald A. Ritchie.
Reviewed 2002-09-01.
All 42 of the nation’s completed presidencies are profiled in detail at this website, which is geared towards teaching the history of the American Presidency. In-depth biographies include information on childhood, education, career, elections, family life, domestic policy, and foreign affairs. Many biographies include links to numerous primary sources—speeches, writings, letters, and diplomatic documents—and to lesson plans. As a companion website to the PBS American Experience documentaries, these resources are hooked into a larger “Archives” section available at the top of the screen. Here, users will find thousands of resources, including maps, movies, and QuickTime Virtual Reality, on many topics in American history divided by theme and chronology, such as technology, popular culture, war, and urban and rural environments. The “Teachers” section similarly provides hundreds of lesson plans exploring such topics as media coverage of presidential elections, the vice president’s role in electoral politics, presidents and foreign policy, and the importance of political compromise.
Resources Available: TEXT, IMAGES, AUDIO, VIDEO.
Website last visited on 2007-11-15.

Presidential Recordings Program
Miller Center of Public Affairs, University of Virginia.
See JAH web review by David Greenberg.
Reviewed 2007-12-01.
Offering access to more than 2,500 hours of White House recordings of six American presidents between 1940 and 1973, this website presents recordings from Franklin Roosevelt (8 hours), Harry Truman (10 hours), Dwight Eisenhower (4.5 hours), John Kennedy (260 hours), Lyndon Johnson (550 hours), and Richard Nixon (2,019 hours). A brief introduction to each set of recordings is provided and edited transcriptions of the Kennedy tapes are available. “From the Headlines” relates current events to the recordings. Eight exhibits with short scholarly essays utilizing clips from the presidential recordings feature such topics as the civil rights movement, the Vietnam War, Johnson’s “War on Poverty,” and the Space Race. Additionally, the site presents 16 pre-selected multimedia clips that include recordings of Kennedy discussing withdrawing from Vietnam, Johnson talking to McNamara about leaks, Johnson discussing women in politics, and Nixon discussing Mark Felt during the Watergate cover up. The site provides links to more than 40 related articles and, for each of the six presidents, links to the presidential libraries, document collections, related websites, and articles. An outstanding resource for researching the administrations of these presidents.
Resources Available: TEXT, AUDIO.
Website last visited on 2010-05-07.

Words and Deeds in American History: Selected Documents Celebrating the Manuscript Division’s First 100 Years
American Memory, Library of Congress.
This site displays approximately 90 primary documents from the 15th century to the mid 20th century. Features eight subjects: the presidency; Congress, law, and politics; military affairs; diplomacy and foreign policy; arts and literature; science, medicine, exploration, and invention; African-American history and culture; and women’s history. The collection emphasizes “prominent Americans whose lives reflect our country’s evolution,” including 23 presidents and figures such as Carter Woodson, Thurgood Marshall, pioneer physician Elizabeth Blackwell, Wilbur Wright, and Alexander Graham Bell. Each subject is accompanied by a useful 100- to 400-word background essay and a link to the document’s host collection. Also includes a 2,000-word essay entitled “Collecting, Preserving, and Researching History: A Peek into the Library of Congress Manuscript Division.” Although limited in size, this site provides an eclectic group of documents of national interest.
Resources Available: TEXT, IMAGES.
Website last visited on 2008-10-06.

Lester S. Levy Collection of Sheet Music
Milton S. Eisenhower Library, Johns Hopkins University.
Provides scanned images of more than 18,000 pieces of sheet music, including covers published prior to 1923, and cataloging for an additional 11,000 items not in the public domain. While the collection, compiled by an American musicologist, covers the period 1780–1980, it focuses on 19th-century popular music, especially songs relating to military conflicts, presidents, romance, transportation, and songs from the minstrel stage. Users may search for songs on hundreds of topics such as drinking, smoking, fraternal orders, the circus, and death, or look for composers, song titles, or other catalog record data. Useful for the study of 19th- and early 20th-century popular culture, especially with regard to depictions of ethnicity, gender, and race in images and songs.
Listen to the audio review:

Resources Available: TEXT, IMAGES.
Website last visited on 2007-11-20.

“I Do Solemnly Swear”: Presidential Inaugurations, 1789–2001
American Memory, Library of Congress.
This Library of Congress American Memory site is a fascinating collection of more than 400 items from each of the 54 United States presidential inaugurations, from George Washington in 1789 to George W. Bush in 2001. Items in the collection are arranged chronologically by inauguration and include digital images of presidents’ diaries and letters, writings by witnesses to inaugurations, handwritten drafts of inauguration addresses, broadsides, inauguration tickets, programs, prints, photographs, and sheet music. Transcriptions for approximately 50 of the selected documents are also available. The items are drawn from collections in various Library of Congress divisions, from Manuscripts to Rare Books to Music, as well as from outside archives such as the White House, the U.S. Senate Office, and the Sergeant at Arms. Inaugural addresses on this site are offered in collaboration with Yale University’s Avalon Collection and include the searchable text transcriptions of each address. The site also boasts six Special Presentations. Marvin Kranz, historical specialist of the Manuscript Division, reviews nine inaugurations from Washington (1789) to Theodore Roosevelt (1905) in a “Video Presentation.” “Words and Images” pairs contemporary diary or letter recountings of five inaugural events with images of the events. “Presidential Oaths of Office” offers a table of dates, presidents’ names, locations, and administrators of the oath of office for each inauguration. “Precedents and Notable Events” lists “firsts” or items of note from each inauguration, such as the shortest inaugural address (Washington’s 1793 address, 135 words), the first inauguration at the Capitol, and oaths taken out-of-doors. “Bible and Scripture Passages” offers a table of scripture passages used by presidents in taking the oath of office. And a “Selected List of References” offers an exhaustive listing of more than 700 primary and secondary references used in creating the site. The site also offers links to 16 related American Memory sites and nine outside sites. It is keyword searchable and browsable by subject and date. It is ideal for those interested in the American presidency and American culture.
Resources Available: TEXT, IMAGES, AUDIO, VIDEO.
Website last visited on 2008-10-08.

Don Mabry’s Historical Text Archive
Don Mabry, Professor Emeritus, Mississippi State University.
Provides more than 5,100 links to historical texts, with more than 1,600 on U.S. history topics. The latter are organized into subcategories according to time period, section, states, biographies, wars, presidents, foreign policy, and business history. Separate categories on women’s history and African-American history provide more than 80 and 140 links, respectively, while the Latin American category offers more than 400. More than 100 links pertain to teaching. The site allows visitors the opportunity to rate links and lists the date a link was added, number of hits, and rating. In addition, the site offers an eclectic collection of articles, books, documents, maps, and photographs in the following areas: Africa, African-Americans, Asia, Europe, Genealogy, Hungary, the Internet, Korean War, Latin America, Mexico, Persian Gulf, Religion, Rock ’n’ Roll, U.S., World War I, and World War II. The U.S. section includes 63 articles, most of which deal with wars, international relations, and American Indians. The site’s creator is a professor of history at the University of Mississippi. Valuable primarily for the links.
Resources Available: TEXT, IMAGES.
Website last visited on 2008-10-06.

The American Presidency: A Glorious Burden
Smithsonian Institution, National Museum of American History.
An engaging exhibit geared especially to schoolchildren, this site provides images, texts, and activities to explore the history and operation of the American presidency. Organized into four sections, the exhibit displays more than 375 images of documents, paintings, photographs, buttons, posters, paraphernalia, and objects along with short texts (50–200 words in length) explaining their significance. “The Foundations” pertains to the prehistory of the presidency, how the Framers defined responsibilities of the office, and the basic work that the office requires. “The Campaign Trail” covers the election process. “Life and Death in the White House” looks at the domestic world of the president, life after leaving office, and assassinations. “Communicating the Presidency” deals with the press, the entertainment industry, and advertising. Most impressive are the many suggested activities, lesson plans, and games designed for children of varying ages. A Teacher’s Manual contains five lesson plans each for grades 4–6, 7–9, and 10–12. In addition, there are activities for younger children, including analyzing letters between children and five presidents and creating a new official seal. Provides a timeline, bibliography of 88 titles arranged according to age group and exhibit section, and annotated list of 46 links to other sites. Very useful for classroom history and civics courses.
Resources Available: TEXT, IMAGES.
Website last visited on 2008-10-08.

The Tax History Project
Tax Analysts.
Created by Tax Analysts, “a non-profit, non-partisan organization fostering open debate on federal, state, and international tax policy,” this site furnishes an eclectic range of primary and secondary resources for the history of American taxation in five sections. “Tax History Museum” currently offers a 23,000-word narrative in eight chronological segments summarizing “American revenue policy and politics” from 1660 to 1900, supplemented with 73 images and 25 links to related documents. The site’s authors hope to open the 20th century portion soon. “The Price of Civilization” makes available 14 posters and more than 6,500 pages of federal documents—consisting primarily of reports from the Treasury Department—dealing with “the rise of the modern federal revenue system” during the Great Depression and World War II. “Presidential Tax Returns” includes returns of Presidents George W. Bush, William Clinton, George H. W. Bush, Ronald Reagan, Jimmy Carter, Richard Nixon, Franklin Roosevelt, and Vice President Dick Cheney. “Taxing Federalism” features nine of the Federalist Papers, and “Image Gallery” offers 15 political cartoons from the turn of the century to 1947, many by Washington Star cartoonist Clifford Berryman. The site also offers a bibliography of 12 titles and four sound clips of federal officials discussing tax policy. Valuable for students of legal, political, and economic history.
Resources Available: TEXT, IMAGES, AUDIO.
Website last visited on 2007-10-22.

Dolley Madison Project
Holly Shulman, Virginia Center for Digital History.
See JAH web review by Robert P. Watson.
Reviewed 2007-09-01.
This attractive and easy to navigate website focuses on the life and legacy of First Lady Dolley Payne Todd Madison, wife of James Madison. There are two main sections. “Resources” includes four short background essays on different periods of Dolley Madison’s life; a timeline and chronology of her life; a short essay explaining the controversy over Dolley Madison’s first name; an alphabetical listing of her correspondents with biographical sketches; and a link to the National First Ladies’ Library page on Dolley Madison with a bibliography and lesson plans. “Exhibit” offers four presentations focused on Dolley Madison’s life: early years, years in Washington, years at Montpelier during her husband’s retirement, and widowhood. Each has a background essay, selected letters, an image gallery (41 images total), and a timeline. There is also a link to the Dolley Madison Digital Edition, a fee-based archive containing “the first-ever complete edition of all her known correspondence.” Additionally, there is a section on the use of Dolley Madison’s name and image in popular culture with a collection of 27 images. A useful information resource for those interested in Dolley Madison or teaching about her life.
Resources Available: TEXT, IMAGES.
Website last visited on 2008-10-06.

State of the Union
Brad Borevitz.
Presidents from George Washington to Barack Obama have delivered 214 State of the Union addresses, some delivered orally and many more only written. This website makes the full text of all addresses available and fully searchable, and has done some innovative work text-mining these speeches to examine “changes in the language of the State of the Union address over the past 200 years.” A good place to begin is the website’s “Essay” section, which gives a brief history of the State of the Union address, and describes some of the project’s most interesting findings. The website’s most prominent feature is a series of graphical representations of the most frequently used words in each address, which allows users to compare those words to those of any other speech. Another tool allows users to compare the usage of two words in all addresses delivered. Comparing “war” and “peace,” for example, reveals that these words have been used in 206 of the addresses, and that the word “war” alone has been used more than 2,600 times, compared to 1,821 usages for “peace.”
Resources Available: TEXT.
Website last visited on 2010-04-29.

Stiff upper lip.
Rather than call for the creation of federal relief programs, this 1931 advertisement placed by the President’s Organization on Unemployment Relief opts for local voluntary charity as a response to the Great Depression. President Herbert Hoover firmly believed that relief was a local responsibility, although even this step, which proved inadequate, went further than pre-World War I presidents, who stood by passively during financial panics. Few Americans expected the government to take drastic action when the Depression struck. Many turned instead to their employers, merchants, churches, landlords, and local banks, as well as to family networks, for assistance. As the Depression and unemployment deepened, however, it became clear that the “moral capitalism” of marketplace institutions was drastically inadequate and aggressive government action was needed.
Resources Available: IMAGES.

The Ollie Atkins Photograph Collection
George Mason University, Special Collections and Archives.
Presents more than 300 photographs taken by Oliver Atkins, a Saturday Evening Post photographer from 1945 to 1968. Atkins then became President Richard M. Nixon’s personal photographer and chief White House photographer until the president’s resignation. The photographs, selected from an archive of more than 57,000 images donated to George Mason University Libraries, mostly document presidents from Eisenhower to Nixon and political figures, both national and international. In addition, the site offers photos of celebrities and cultural figures, and includes sections on “American Life at Mid-Century” and “Demonstrations and Marches.” Valuable for those studying images produced by the press and the government in the post-World War II period.
Resources Available: TEXT, IMAGES.
Website last visited on 2002-06-06.

C-SPAN American Political Archive
C-SPAN.
This website, which draws from C-Span Radio, is a useful resource for researching or teaching 20th-th century American political history. It assembles audio recordings from such sources as the National Archives, presidential libraries, the Smithsonian Institution, and the Library of Congress. It “presents interviews, debates, oral histories, news conferences, and speeches with past presidents, legislators, and other important figures in American politics.” Selecting “Past APA programs available online” provides the full list of 29 archived programs. Program subjects include persons such as W.E.B. DuBois, Indira Gandhi, Eleanor Roosevelt, NASA astronauts; Presidents Harry Truman, Richard Nixon, Jimmy Carter, Dwight Eisenhower, and Gerald Ford; and Civil Rights leaders A. Philip Randolph, Malcolm X, and Thurgood Marshall. They also include thematic topics such as the Reagan presidency, women in journalism, ex-slave narratives, Iraq war stories, Congressional leaders, the voices of World War II, and American POWs. Many of the topics feature multiple programs. All programs are recordings of the original C-SPAN Radio program and must be listened to as originally broadcast. Playback of the programs requires media player software to be installed (free downloads can be accessed from the site).
Resources Available: AUDIO, VIDEO.
Website last visited on 2008-02-04.

Korea + 50: No Longer Forgotten
Harry S. Truman and Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential Libraries.
A collection of more than 200 official documents, nine oral histories, and more than 70 photographs pertaining to the pursuance of the Korean War by the administrations of Presidents Harry S. Truman and Dwight D. Eisenhower. Provides day-by-day access covering June 24-September 14, 1950—and more sporadic contributions during subsequent periods—to diplomatic and military documents and accounts by administration officials, including correspondence, speeches, memos, reports, and briefing papers. A special section covers the historic Wake Island meeting in October 1950 between Truman and General Douglas MacArthur, with excerpted documents, reminiscences by participants and observers, and photographs. Also includes an audio recording of Truman discussing the firing of MacArthur in 1951; an extensive “Korean War Teacher Activity” from a high school in Independence, MO, including assignments geared to official documents and oral histories; guides to archival materials in the Truman and Eisenhower presidential libraries; information on relevant exhibitions in the libraries; and links to five related sites. Valuable for students to learn to evaluate historical narratives composed of materials from diverse sources.
Resources Available: TEXT, IMAGES, AUDIO.
Website last visited on 2001-08-08.

Mits Koshiyama Recalls Japanese American Resistance to Incarceration
Mits Koshiyama is a Nisei (second generation) Japanese American born in 1924 in Mountain View, California. He grew up in the Santa Clara Valley, working on his family’s leased strawberry farm. In June 1942, he was removed to Santa Anita Assembly Center, California (a converted race track), and then taken to Heart Mountain incarceration camp, Wyoming. Mits graduated from high school in camp and at the age of 19, refused induction into the military on the grounds that the incarceration violated his Constitutional rights as an American citizen. He served two years at McNeil Island federal penitentiary, Washington. Over 300 resisters of conscience were convicted of draft evasion. In 1947 President Harry Truman pardoned them all, but the Japanese American community shunned them as “troublemakers.” In this interview excerpt Mits recollects a fellow high school student’s stance on civil liberties. He mentions the coram nobis cases, the rehearing of three wartime Supreme Court cases brought by Japanese Americans who challenged the legality of their incarceration.
Resources Available: TEXT, AUDIO.

“Gonna Miss President Roosevelt”: The Blues for FDR
The relationship between African Americans and Franklin D. Roosevelt presents something of a paradox. On the one hand, Roosevelt never endorsed anti-lynching legislation; he accepted segregation and disenfranchisement; and he condoned discrimination against blacks in federally funded relief programs. On the other hand, Roosevelt won the hearts and the votes of African Americans in unprecedented numbers. Many black Americans not only voted for Roosevelt; they made him into a hero. “Franklin,” “Eleanor,” “Delano,” and even “Roosevelt” became popular first names for black children in the 1930s. And many African Americans hung the president’s picture on their walls beside those of Christ and Lincoln. Another indication of the powerful impression that Roosevelt made in the black community was Big Joe Williams’ recording of a blues tribute on the occasion of Roosevelt’s death in 1945, “His Spirit Lives On.”
Resources Available: TEXT.

The Last Days of a President: Films of McKinley and the Pan-American Exposition, 1901
American Memory, Library of Congress.
In September 1901, President William McKinley was attacked while visiting the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, New York. He eventually died of his wounds. This Library of Congress American Memory site features 28 films, drawn from the Paper Print Collection of the Library’s Motion Picture, Broadcasting, and Recorded Sound Division, depicting scenes from the Exposition and McKinley’s visit to Buffalo. Produced by the Edison Manufacturing Company from March to November, 1901, the films include footage of President McKinley at his second inauguration; the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo; President McKinley at the Exposition; and McKinley’s funeral. The site also includes a roughly 500-word introductory essay about the exposition and McKinley’s assassination; a 1000-word essay describing America at the turn of the 20th century; a 250-word introduction to the Library’s Paper Print Collection; a 23-work selected bibliography on McKinley and the Pan-American Exposition; and a 15-work bibliography on the history of motion pictures. A “Learn More About It” page lists seven other Library of Congress special presentations and related collections and exhibits for those interested in further exploring the era. There is an alphabetical listing of the films, as well as a keyword search engine. Though the online exhibit is limited in scope and nature of sources, it is a good resource for those interested in early-20th-century expositions, American presidents, and William McKinley.
Resources Available: TEXT, VIDEO.
Website last visited on 2008-10-14.

Century of Lawmaking for a New Nation: Congressional Documents and Debates, 1774–1873
American Memory, Library of Congress.
See JAH web review by Whitman H. Ridgway.
Reviewed 2011-03-01.
A comprehensive set of Congressional documents from the nation’s founding through early Reconstruction, is available on this website. Materials are organized into four categories: Continental Congress and the Constitutional Convention; Statutes and Documents; Journals of Congress; and Debates of Congress. The site provides descriptions of sixteen types of documents, including bills and resolutions, American State Papers, the U.S. Serial Set, Journals of the Continental Congress, the Congressional Globe, and the Congressional Record. A presentation addresses the making of the Constitution that introduced an 1834 compilation of Congressional debates and proceedings and a timeline presents American history as seen in Congressional documents. Special attention is directed to Revolutionary diplomatic correspondence, Indian land cessions, the Louisiana Purchase, the Journal of the Congress of the Confederate States of America, 1861–1865, the impeachment of Andrew Johnson, and the electoral college.
Resources Available: TEXT, IMAGES.
Website last visited on 2007-11-14.

Nixon Tapes
National Security Archive.
This collection offers 32 transcripts and a dozen audio excerpts, all recently declassified, of conversations between former U.S. President Richard Nixon and the former president of Mexico, Luis Echeverria Alvarez. The audio files come from close to 170 hours of conversation between the two leaders. Both men were involved in secret operations at the time of the conversations (Nixon was involved in the Cambodia bombings, while Echeverria was fighting a “Dirty War” against political opponents in Mexico), although only Nixon knew the conversations were being recorded. The two presidents often mused about geopolitics and only occasionally discussed the most-frequently debated issues between the two nations (such as drugs or trade). Although the tapes are available in other archives, the focus of the site makes it useful in exploring the relationship between Nixon and Echeverria.
Resources Available: TEXT, AUDIO.
Website last visited on 2004-05-25.

McKinley Assassination Ink: A Documentary History of William McKinley’s Assassination
C.A. Gable and S.N. Huthmacher.
On September 14, 1901, American anarchist Leon Czolgosz assassinated President William McKinley, propelling Theodore Roosevelt onto the U.S. political stage and, some historians would argue, making way for political modernization. Through hundreds of documents and images—including book chapters, newspaper articles and columns, sermons, poetry, and government documents—this website explores the McKinley assassination alongside U.S. politics and culture before and after. Topics include turn-of-the-century journalism, race relations, anarchism, women’s roles, the death penalty, international relations, and the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, New York, where McKinley was shot. A good place to begin is the “Quotes About” section, which provides short excerpts from a variety of sources that serve to familiarize users with conflicting views of McKinley, Czolgosz, Roosevelt, the assassination, Czolgosz’s trial, and anarchism in the United States. All documents are keyword searchable and indexed by date, author, title, type, named persons, and source. An extensive bibliography provides suggestions for further reading.
Resources Available: TEXT, IMAGES.
Website last visited on 2007-01-02.

Eyewitness: American Originals from the National Archives
The National Archives.
The soot-smudged face of a child working in a West Virginia coal mine, documented by photographer Lewis Hine in 1908, greets visitors to this website featuring 25 additional eyewitness accounts of events in U.S. history. Excerpts from the letters, diaries, audio diaries, court records, and personal notes of both the well-known and the unknown breathe life into a diverse group of events spanning two centuries. Testimony from seven U.S. presidents sheds light on diplomatic affairs. For example, a series of letters from General George Washington to Congress in 1775 reveals his concerns with suspected British bioterrorism; a letter written by Thomas Jefferson to John Jay documents the early hours of the French Revolution; President Truman’s diary entry describes his first meeting with Joseph Stalin in 1945; and John F. Kennedy’s audio diary documents the beginning of the Cuban Missile Crisis. Other notable accounts include John Boston’s 1862 letter describing his escape from slavery, the testimony of President Lincoln’s family physician describing Lincoln’s condition during his last hours, and U-boat captain Walter Schwieger’s description of sinking the RMS Lusitania in 1915. Short background essays and photographs or drawings accompany each account.
Resources Available: TEXT, IMAGES, AUDIO.
Website last visited on 2008-10-02.